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Try your luck on a duck

What has quickly become a local springtime tradition is set to resume on Saturday, May 7 at the Sooke Flats.

The community get-together is held at a great time of year, in an ideal location, for a tremendously worthwhile cause, and it’s as easy as picking a plastic duck, or ducks you feel have the right pluck to be first across the finish line.

This year marks the fifth such installment of the ceremonial and supportive “floating of the fowl.” The original intent was to find a fun way to raise some money toward research into juvenile diabetes. The initiative has evolved to where half the funds raised go toward JD research while the balance is earmarked for sending at least one disabled child to Camp Shawnigan.

The event is basically an educational opportunity with a lot of fun and socializing thrown in for good measure. Each year the organizers strive to keep things fresh. The Doll House which is being raffled will be on site, as will two diabetes educators to chat with anyone who wishes to stop by their tent. Both the JDRF and Canadian Diabetes will be represented.

“Most of the bugs are worked out, every year we try to add some new event on the grounds for the kids to enjoy,” said one of the organizers Georgia Medwedrich of the Sooke Harbourside Lions. “This has become more of a diabetes educator day along with the carnival type events for the children to take part in while we wait for the ducks to swim down the river.

“In the beginning the idea was to raise funds for Juvenile Diabetes Research, we have revamped and each year give half the money brought in to JDRF and the other half pays for a campership (or two if there is more money) at Camp Shawnigan for a child with disabilities.